Would I be a good fit for these colleges?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi all,

I am a first-year undergraduate student looking to transfer for personal reasons you can read about here (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17954948). At the advice of another user I am posting this to the general “College Selection” forum instead of each college’s individual forum. I am applying to Carleton, Colorado College, Earlham, Evergreen State, Grinnell, Hampshire, Oberlin, and Whitman.

  1. How LGBT-friendly is the college? If I came out, would students be accepting? Can I obtain gender-neutral housing?

  2. How good is the financial aid?

  3. What is the neuroscience program like? If there is no neuroscience program, are the sciences in general well-supported? Does it prepare students well for after graduation (employment, grad school, etc.)?

  4. How are disability services? I had no trouble transferring my learning disability accommodations from my high school to my current institution.

  5. How is the campus vibe? Is it laid-back, high-stress, preppy, hippie, or something else? What kind of students do these colleges usually attract?

  6. Is alcohol/drinking prevalent on campus?

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

  • deepseafish
2

I can’t answer to most of the colleges, but know something about Hampshire.

  1. Very very LGBT friendly. In addition, its part of the 5-college consortium so you can take classes and socialize at Smith and Mount Holyoke which are also uber LGBT friendly. MHC in particular is very trans friendly (re: their recent decision to admit transgender students.) I’m pretty sure that at Hampshire, like at Smith and MHC, you’re asked what your preferred pronoun is :slight_smile: Here’s their LGBT page https://www.hampshire.edu/qcac/queer-community-alliance-center
    Also- wasn’t Laverne Cox the commencement speaker there last year?
  2. FA is okay. Not meets-full-need but pretty good.
  3. No idea, although they have a department. And again- you have 4 other colleges right there you can take classes at…
  4. I think they are good and supportive about disability. I remember being impressed that they had a whole web page devoted to ADHD support on their web site.
  5. Laid back, hippie, quirky. There are yurts. And a campus farm.
  6. Alcohol is not the drug of choice at Hampshire. There is a lot of weed-smoking. Whereas at other colleges the problems may be alcohol and prescription drugs, at Hampshire it’s more likely to be marijuana and hallucinogens. Their first-year retention rate is fairly low because (IMHO) some kids go there thinking they can just smoke pot for 4 years; in reality it’s a fairly intense -albeit non-traditional- academic place and kids with low self-discipline usually can’t hack it.

P.S I don’t know if you already found this, but it might be helpful:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iXcTiWKvTVfIYDx0ciZnZI5Bw5R_hfCdfTZKJPHpeHI/edit?pli=1

3

@staceyneil - Thank you for the insight. Unfortunately, I can’t open the document at the end of your post.

4

@deepseafish Ahh, CC stripped the URL, sorry. Just replace the ***** in the link with docs-dot-google-dot-com. Or do a google search for: “Applying to College as a Non Binary Trans Person”

5

@staceyneil - Thank you for this, I know of several people who would benefit from this document.

It would be interesting to construct a database of gender on college applications.

6

You are welcome. I’m sorry you’re not having a good experience at your school. My D loves MHC! I wish you the best wherever you end up.

7

@staceyneil - I actually like my current school and would highly recommend it to many people. My reasons for transferring are due to personal issues that have nothing to do with the school. If I wasn’t dealing with those things, I’d probably stay. Thank you for your encouragement.